***NEW GITANE "CITY LINK" FRAMESET AVAILABLE FOR A LIMITED TIME IN THE USA!

For a limited time, Gitane's "City Link" single speed cross/commuter frameset will be available in select stores in the USA! This will be the first time in years any Gitane has been made available to customers in the USA. For only $399, you can own a French Legend!

Tour de France

Gitane’s most popular racing model of the early 1970’s
was the affordable “Tour de France”.

Made of Reynolds 531 tubing, Prugnat lugs, Vagner Fork Crowns,
and Simplex dropouts, the workmanship was often sloppy. Although
not too pretty to look at, it was not necessarily poorly
made, just poorly finished. Lugs were often off-center, welding
on the dropouts often appeared to have been done by a three-year
old. And the paint jobs were not the best. The paint itself
was not clear coated, and the gold detail around the lugs
was hand-applied by less than steady hands (one too many
glasses of wine?). The logos and other artwork were merely
stuck on with stickers, instead of using decals with clear
coat over them. It is for this reason that it is difficult
to find older Gitane’s in pristine condition. Often,
bottle cages and other clamp-ons were placed over the stickers
and would mar them, forcing the owners to remove them entirely
if they wanted the bicycle to look somewhat presentable.

Click on Thumbnail to enlarge picture

A young Hinault.
Like so many
others, he got his start
on the
Gitane

1970 Gitane
Tour de France

1976 Gitane
Tour de France

1978 Gitane
Tour de France

The Tour de France - All
French!

1984 Gitane
Tour de France

Classic Tour de France,
circa 1970

But
perhaps it is these imperfections that make the Tour de France
a desirable bicycle. Selling for around $200 in 1970, these
bikes were many people’s first “high
performance” machines. They were outfitted with Simplex
derailleurs, which worked reasonably well when new, beautiful
Stronglight crank sets, Normandy hubs, Pivo stems, and Mafac
Competition brakes, and Ideale leather saddles. Of course,
these used the French threading that we are all so fond of!

The model went through several transitions over the years
and lasted as a upper-range Gitane through the late 1980's.
Later versions were built first with Vitus tubing and then
actually appeared as Gitane’s first aluminum bicycle,
which was actually a re-badged Vitus.